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IS Az 

cj , ^ STATE OF IOWA 

1917 



IOWA DAY 

To Be Loyal to Every Interest of Iowa is a Patriotic Duty 



IOWA WEEK, First Week of October, 1917 
IOWA DAY, Friday, October 5, 1917 



Issued by the Department of Public Instruction for Use in the 
Public Schools and all Institutions of Higher Education 



ALBERT M. DEYOE 

Superintendent of Public Instruction 

B. W. HOADLEY 

Chief Clerk 



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Published by 

THE STATE OF IOWA 
DES MOINES 



D. of D. 

JAN 23 1918 



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INTRODUCTION 



According to. plans formulated by the Greater Iowa Asso- 
ciation, the first week in October is to be observed as Iowa 
week. 

THE IOWA DAY EXPERIMENT A WORTHY ONE. 

Fortunate, indeed, was the thought of last year that im- 
pelled us to suggest the observance of a day, especially set apart 
and to be known as Iowa Day. The people of the state were 
deeply appreciative of that inauguration; therefore, the 
thought that we are to join with the Greater Iowa Association, 
and at its suggestion, in the observance of Iowa Day during 
Iowa Week, is inspiriting, to say the least. In harmony with 
the general arrangements already made Iowa Day will be 
observed on Friday, October 5, 1917. 

WHERE MATERIAL FOR USE DURING IOWA WEEK AND ON IOWA 
DAY MAY BE FOUND. 

Material may be found wherever Iowa people, Iowa products 
and Iowa interests are to be found. Iowa people are ap- 
proachable, her wares and products are on every hand and 
her interests are world-wide. While much of the material 
in the Iowa Day booklet, issued last year, may have been used, 
yet there is no danger in using the same material again ; how- 
ever, it is more than likely that there is material in that book- 
let still remaining unused. By addressing the Secretary of 
the Greater lov/a Association at Davenport, the Secretary of 
the Greater Des Moines Committee at Des Moines, or the 
Secretary of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture at Des 
Moines, it is altogether possible to secure much valuable ma- 
terial for use on Iowa Day and during Iowa Week. Again, 
there are the valuable bulletins and booklets issued by the 
state schools of Iowa and by many of the colleges of the state. 



Miss Pearl Bennett, of the West Des Moines High School, proposes a 
special feature in four parts: A student dressed in the garb of an auto- 
mobilist with goggles, linen duster and probably carrying a blown out 
tire casing, will memorize and deliver a short story on Iowa's road 



— 4 — 

progress and what we have in mind for road development in the imme- 
diate future. 

Another student attired in the garb of a scholar will present the status 
of Iowa from an educational standpoint. 

Another lad in overalls, skull cap and carrying a monkey wrench will 
tell the story of Iowa's manufacturing development and point out the 
practicality of lowans taking a deeper interest in Iowa-made goods. 

The fourth boy will represent the Iowa farmer and recite of the 

prowess of Iowa in the realm of agriculture. 

Note — The stories on Agriculture, Manufacturing- and Good Roads, as 
well as the Summary, were supplied by the Greater Iowa Association. 



THE EDUCATIONAL STORY 
OF IOWA 



The number of one-room rural schools in the state is about 
11,400. There are 235 Consolidated School Districts and 707 
approved graded and high schools in Iowa. 

CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS IN IOWA. 

There are 28 consolidated districts organized in the open 
country, 4 districts include towns of over a thousand popu- 
lation, 27 districts include towns of less than one thousand 
population but with more than 500 inhabitants, and there are 
159 districts that include small towns or villages where the 
population is less than five hundred. 

The Consolidated school buildings are, in most instances, 
located on a suitable site adjoining the town or village and 
each site consists of five acres as the minimum amount of 
land. Fifteen districts have provided a superintendent's or 
teachers' home and several districts have arranged to employ 
the teacher of agriculture for the entire year. The Consoli- 
dated schools are maintaining good high schools with courses 
of study covering from two to four years of work. Com- 
munity center activities are carried on at the school buildings 
quite generally in consolidated districts. 

APPROVED GRADED AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The Department of Public Instruction is carrying on a pro- 
gram of standardization to increase the efficiency of the 
graded and high schools of the state. This program centers 
about the Free Tuition Law, guaranteeing a high school edu- 
cation to every boy and girl at the expense of his residence 
district. In order that a school may have the privilege of re- 
ceiving tuition money from the districts of non-resident 
students, it must be approved by the Department of Public 
Instruction. 

As a result of' this activity, remarkable improvement has 
been stimulated in the buildings and equipment of such 
schools; courses of study have been vitalized; qualifications 



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of teachers raised, and more efficient organization and ad- 
ministration effected. This year there is a total of 707 ap- 
proved schools enrolling 91 per cent of the school population 
in the village, town, city and consolidated districts of Iowa. 

The most notable growth since the forward movement be- 
gan is in the increase in the number of four year high schools. 
There are now over 550 schools maintaining standard four- 
year high school courses and more than 200 having added one 
or more years of approved high school work. Approximately 
30,000 boys and girls are thus given the opportunity of re- 
ceiving an additional year of high school training in their 
home or neighboring school districts. Moreover, there are 
over 12,000 students whose tuition in approved schools is paid 
by their resident districts. These, together with over 225,000 
children of school age, living in the 707 districts maintaining 
such approved schools, are the direct beneficiaries of the 
Iowa plan of standardization. 

NORMAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOLS. 

In keeping with the practice in twenty-one states, Iowa is 
offering courses of training for rural school teachers in 
selected high schools. This work was begun in forty high 
schools in the fall of 1911 when 593 pupils enrolled. The de- 
mand for these courses is heavy and always has exceeded the 
number possible to designate. Today there are 168 high 
schools offering such courses with 3,700 students enrolled. 
This work is given in the last two years of a four year high 
school course. Upon graduation a certificate to teach is 
granted. 

Holders of normal training high school certificates now fill 
one rural school in six in the state. Their training is very 
beneficial, for county superintendents, directors, and patrons 
unanimously report that these teachers conduct better schools 
in every respect than untrained beginners. 

For the encouragement of such work in high schools the 
State of Iowa offers financial aid to the amount of $750 an- 
nually to each high school designated to carry, on the course 
under regulations of the Department of Public Instruction. 
The local high school is stimulated by the supervision from the 
state, a large number of earnest and deserving students are 
given definite help and encouragement in the important work 



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they wish to do, and a like number of rural communities re- 
ceive direct benefit through better schools. No more potent 
activities for the welfare of a state can be undertaken than 
those that afliect its rural schools. 

TRAINING FOR USEFUL EMPLOYMENT. 

Iowa recognizes the great need for vitalized courses of 
study. To this end every effort has been made to connect up 
the activities of the school with the activities of the farm, 
the shop and the home. The Thirty-fifth General Assembly 
passed an Act requiring the teaching of Elementary Agricul- 
ture, Manual Training and Domestic Science in all of the 
schools of the state. This was a good beginning. Today, 
Iowa is launching upon a constructive program to co-operate 
• with the Federal government in the work of providing an 
army of trained workers. The Thirty-seventh General As- 
sembly passed a law enabling the state to accept Federal aid 
for vocational education under the provisions of the Smith- 
Hughes Act. The newly created State Board for Vocational 
Education is organizing the educational agencies of the state 
so .that by a system of co-operation among these agencies, 
Iowa will offer opportunities for training in Agriculture, 
Home Economics and Trade and Industry strictly on the basis 
of training for useful employment. 

THE PRESENT DEMAND IS FOR TRAINED WORKERS. 

The crying need of the present time is for trained men and 
women, — skilled workers in specialized science. The forces 
for agricultural work are all too limited. There is a scarcity 
of the technically trained supervisor. There are vacant places 
in the laboratories, at the forges and behind the lathe tables. 
The idle tools of the artist and the artisan all await the touch 
of the skilled manipulator. 

AMERICA IS ENGAGED IN VERY SERIOUS BUSINESS. 

These things strike us with too little seriousness. Many a 
skilled worker has listened to the higher call of duty. He 
waited not for the call of the bugle or the awakening impulse 
of the cannon's roar, but the patriotic spirit within him bade 
him move out and up to greater tasks and more serious under- 
takings. These things are real, not imaginary; how shall 
conditions thus created be met, except by a far-sighted policy 



of the individual, the state and the nation, which shall re- 
quire the boys and girls, not yet through college, to attend 
and to so continue to do until, by thorough preparation they 
are ready to step into the vacant places so patriotically made. 

ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE AN URGENT NEED. 

This attendance upon the duties of the school and the col- 
lege is a duty we owe our community, our state, our nation 
and our posterity. This, then, is the call to duty. It may re- 
quire the test of the best heroism; yes, even sacrifice of the 
gravest kind. Here lies the path of duty and sacrifice : there 
the road to pleasure and lack of responsibility; which shall 
we take? 

THE CALL TO SERVICE IS WORLD-WIDE. 

When the f rightfulness of this World War is over the neces- 
sity for trained hands, thoughtful minds and inspired hearts 
will yet be apparent; therefore, the greater need for present 
preparation. The call for service will not come alone from the 
different sections of this land of ours ; it will come from afar 
and will be vibrant with a desire for human aid in the social, 
moral and industrial uplift that must needs follow every world 
catastrophe. 

A REASONABLE PRIDE SHOULD POSSESS US. 

May we take a genuine pride in the observance of Iowa Day 
and Iowa Week. The time is opportune; the cause is a just 
one and Iowa people may be expected to measure up to the 
full stature of real patriots. To observe this special day and 
this Iowa Week should not be considered in the light of a task ; 
it is a duty and may that duty be performed with the highest 
degree of patriotic efficiency. 



AGRICULTURE 

Agriculture is the great basic industry of the world. What- 
ever else we do it is very necessary that we eat. We cannot 
eat without food and the extent and variety of food depends 
upon the richness of our soil and the progress of our agri- 
culture. 



— 9 — 

This is no new thought — it has been true since the very 
beginning of things. Two hundred years ago Dean Swift, one 
of the most profound writers said : "And he gave it for his 
opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two 
blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only 
one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do 
more essential service to his country, than the whole race 
of politicians put together." 

The progress of nations throughout all history has been 
in proportion to the progress in agriculture. 

Many sections of land in the world are very productive. 
The Mohawk Valley in New York State was once the garden 
spot of this continent. The soils of Virginia and Louisiana 
have produced wonderfully well. We are told that in the 
vicinity of the Delta of the Nile the soil is wonderfully rich 
but a very careful investigation recently made has shown 
that there is no section of land on the earth's surface, equal 
in area, as productive as Iowa. 

Iowa's area is approximately 56,000 square miles. Over 
ninety-nine per cent of this entire area is productive. No 
other section of the world can compare with this. 

Advanced information sent out by the Greater Iowa As- 
sociation indicates that in 1917 Iowa's agricultural production 
will exceed any production from an equal area of land in 
the history of the world. 

But the soil of Iowa has been mined rather than farmed. 
Year after year crops have been grown on this wonderfully 
rich Iowa soil, and very little attention has been paid to main- 
taining the fertility of the soil. Today there is a state wide 
movement which is urging the agriculturists of Iowa to stop 
mining the soil but to return to it every year the basis of a 
continued fertility. 

The farmers of New England robbed their soil and during 
the last twenty-five years New England has been dotted with 
deserted farm houses. The Mohawk Valley in New York 
State once led this country in production. During the last 
fifty years it has been steadily declining. But the Chinese 
have been tilling the same soil for four thousand years and 
they have been returning fertility to the soil with the result 
that today the production per acre in China is as good as it 
was twenty centuries ago, — and it ranks well with the most 
productive land anywhere. 



— 10 — 

Iowa leads the world in agriculture. Her products, includ- 
ing live stock, farm crops, dairy and poultry products, wool, 
etc. aggregate more than $1,200,000,000 a year or $100,000,000 
per month. These are big figures but they do not represent 
what Iowa can do if its farming becomes a little less extensive 
and a little more intensive and we change our policy of min- 
ing the soil to one of farming the soil. 



MANUFACTURING 

A great many years ago there were no factories anywhere. 
In the beginning of things all men and women tilled the soil 
for their food, made their clothing from materials they could 
(^btain themselves and supplied their other needs individually. 

Gradually there developed amongst different groups of 
peoples, men or women who were particularly expert in do- 
ing some one thing, such as making sandals or stone axes. 

The next progressive step was for the man who could make 
the best stone ax to negotiate with the man who could make 
the best sandals and bring about an exchange of their products. 
Then money was invented and it was used as a medium of 
exchange. This permitted the man who was an expert in 
making sandals to make many pairs and sell them, using the 
money to buy food and other articles of clothing which he 
himself did not have time to make or grow. That was the 
beginning of manufacture. Since that time we have been 
specializing and today our young men and young women go 
to special schools and take special studies which will enable 
them to become expert in the manufacture of some one article. 
In this way we get better shoes, better clothes — and undoubt- 
edly more food than we would if each of us had to depend upon 
our own individual skill and energy to make or grow things. 

History has proven that no people, whether they be state 
or nation, has ever made permanent development without 
giving a fair share of its energy to manufacturing. Iowa is 
not a great manufacturing state because Iowa is still young. 
Many of the lowans living today were the men and women 
who drove ox teams and prairie schooners into Iowa and 
broke the virgin soil, fought the Indians and developed its 
agriculture. 



— 11 — 

But Iowa is developing rapidly as a manufacturing state. 
Last year the products of its 2,500 factories represented a 
value of nearly $500, 000, COO. Gasolene engines made in Iowa 
are being used to pump water from the blood-soaked trenches 
of the European battle fields. Iowa-made trench digging ma- 
chines are helping to make those trenches in Europe. Iowa- 
made farming machinery is pulling the stumps and tilling the 
soils in Canada and Australia and South America. Iowa- 
made locomotives are pulling trains in Peru and China and 
Alaska — ^they helped build the Panama Canal. Iowa-made 
washing machines are in use in the Philippines and in London. 
Iowa-made gloves are sold in the best stores in New York 
and San Francisco and Iowa-made cream separators won the 
world's grand prize at the last World's Fair. 

In other words, there is no economic or geographic reason 
why Iowa cannot develop her manufacturing until it is co- 
important with her agriculture. 



ROADS 



In years gone by, Iowa has had the worst roads in the United 
States. Many reasons have been ascribed for this but the 
real reason is that Iowa has the most productive soil in the 
United States. We hear a great deal about the wonderful 
roads in New England ; the hundreds of miles of gravel roads 
in Indiana and Minnesota and then we wonder why Iowa roads 
have not been better. But back in New England and in New 
York State the farm land originally was all covered with 
stones and bowlders. The soil itself had much gravel in it 
and before the farmers of New England could till the soil 
they had to get the stones piled up by the roadside. Many of 
the fences were built of stones. Then some inventive genius 
made a stone crusher and in order to get these stones out of 
the way they were crushed. The simplest thing to do with 
the crushed rock was to dump it on the passing roadway. 
Therefore, good roads in New England were simple of con- 
struction. In Indiana and Minnesota all the road builders 
have to do is to back their wagons into gravel pits almost 
anywhere along the roadside, fill their wagons and sprinkle 
the gravel on the roads. 



— 12 — 

But in Iowa the problem has been difficult. The rich black 
soil has enabled Iowa to lead all the world in producing crops 
— but it is the most difficult soil out of which to make a good 
road. 

Today we have a very definite plan of road improvement. 
Our bridges are to be built of everlasting concrete and the 
sentiment is growing in Iowa that our roads should be sur- 
faced with whatever material is necessary to carry the traffic 
every day in the year. 

The Federal Government has taken a progressive step to 
help the building of good roads. The last congress appro- 
priated $85,000,000 for the Federal Aid Road Fund. This 
fund is divided amongst the states in fair proportion, Iowa's 
share being about $2,250,000. This comes as a gift to Iowa 
from the Federal Government but in order to get that money 
Iowa must set aside a like amount and the total fund or 
$4,500,000 must be expended under the supervision of the 
Federal Government and on the kind of roads of which the 
Federal Government approves. 

The last Iowa Legislature passed a law directing the super- 
visors of every county to employ road patrolmen who, during 
the months of spring, summer and fall, shall constantly travel 
over the principal roads in each county filling up the little 
ruts and holes, see that the roads are dragged promptly after 
every rain and, in other words, keep the roads in perfect re- 
pair. 

The story of Iowa's road building may be summed up in 
these words : 

Iowa is spending $15,000,000 a year to improve her roads 
and build better bridges. This work is now being done under 
the expert supervision of highway and bridge engineers and 
it is being done according to a standardized plan. 

With the assistance of the Federal Aid fund and the con- 
stantly increasing automobile license fund, Iowa roads will 
continue to improve, as they have improved during the past 
five years and it is safe to predict that within ten years from 
now Iowa will be able to point to her roads with the same pride 
that she now points to her progress along other lines. 



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SUMMARY 

You have heard the story of Iowa's progress in agriculture, 
in manufacturing, in road building and in education, but a 
Greater Iowa, in the big broad sense of the term, does not 
mean merely an increased production from our soil or more 
and busier factories ; it does not mean merely good roads and 
more and better schools ; a truly Greater Iowa means a hom- 
ogeneous combination of all of these things. 

To achieve a Greater Iowa we must first acquaint ourselves 
with Iowa as it is today, — with its history and its opportuni- 
ties. We must KNOW IOWA, and with this knowledge will 
come a more intense state pride and a deeper interest in what 
Iowa is doing and can do. 

We, in these United States have received from our fore- 
fathers the priceless heritage of democracy, — a government 
"of the people, by the people, and for the people." 

Our nation, with her allies is today waging war against the 
autocratic form of government and for the establishment of 
a world-wide democracy. But a democratic form of govern- 
ment is efficient only in so far as the individual citizen is in- 
terested in the collective welfare. 

The young men and the young women of today should real- 
ize it as their duty to take active part in public affairs; the 
business of their town, their county and their state. 

The population of Iowa is equally divided between those who 
live on the farms and those who live in the cities and towns. 
By developing a mutual confidence and co-operation between 
these two great classes the consummation of the possibilities of 
our State may be fully realized. 



M n ,, ,"^ UF CONGRESS 



020 975 975 5 



